DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION: The Little Known Story of British Road Signs

JOCK KINNEIR AND MARGARET CALVERT, COURTESY OF LONDON DESIGN MUSeum via wired

"If you think about it, traffic signs should be invisible. Not see-through invisible, but intuitively invisible; if they work like they’re supposed to, you won’t even realize you’re using them.

That was the challenge put to Lock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert in 1958, when the British government hired the London designers to devise a new signage system for the country’s roads. Up until then, traffic wayfinding in the UK had been aided through a slapdash series of roadside posts, cobbled together in various colors, fonts, and type sizes. The system was so bad that the design magazine Typographica published two photo essays condemning its terrible usability. If longevity is any measure, the Kinneir-Calvert signage system worked: It’s still in place today, and has informed a number of other similar projects around the world." Read full article in Wired. E.T.P. 4'